chawkins99

Yep. Just our opinions differ.

scrubbedexpat099

The impression you get is that they assume it will be a year round Mouse experience, not that I would find that attractive.

But I agree with Mr P. Unlikely they have missed a positive.

Dorothy

I could not agree more. Whenever I say I'm cold people say "oh but you're Canadian. You should be used to it". Well, like you I have never been so cold as I am here in Australia. Last week we had a run of 40+ degree weather. This past weekend was in the low 30s and I was cool. Last night it was 15 so we put a blanket on the bed.

mikelincs

That's common to many countries, when we moved to Spain it was October, and we were going round in summer clothes howev er there were lots of people around all in coats etc. We were told by the person taking us to various places that it was only the tourists and new arrivals who wore summer clothes in October, and he was right, after a summer of the really hot, 35 degrees weather, when it came to October next we were in coats etc. It's what you get used to and the changes from those temps that affect you.

kodokan

Having recently moved from Arizona to Ohio, I can agree with this. The kids and I aren't too bad, but hubby seems to have gone much more thin-blooded than us during his 4 years in AZ, and is now spending his first OH winter wrapped in a minimum of 4 layers of clothes, and huddling under a blanket whenever possible.

Pulaski

I used to think like that, and have experienced it myself - wearing shorts and T-shirts on Easter trips to Italy when the locals were still with hats and scarves, and even when I was at uni in Liverpool returning to my parents' home in Gloucester finding it remarkably warm in winter, but after moving to London, finding it much colder in Gloucester in winter.

Fast-forward to NC and after 13 years the short relatively mild winters and hot summers doesn't seem to have affected me much at all. I wear shorts and T-shirts late into the autumn and early in spring. I rarely wear a coat in winter unless it is raining, as I find a vest (jacket-liner) is adequate for almost all occasions. .... I do have an "arctic weight" vest for cold weather - and I mean well below freezing, down into the teens °F.

I visited Philadelphia in November a few years ago and I was comfortable in a short-sleeved shirt and a light fleece vest, when the locals were wearing wool coats, hats, and scarves.

markcst

I moved here and we didn't have the choice of Florida, but if I had, then the only place I would consider would be around the Tampa area as I have friends there, both from the UK and from the US... HOWEVER... Tampa is like any other city/area, there are great parts, bad parts and "pack a gun" parts and its important that your employer helps you find the right area and that you do proper research. Most of my friends live North of the City. So whilst asking on here will get you (from your perspective) good answers, bad answers and so-so answers, you need support. Without support you won't enjoy the move. And I personally would not move if the employer didn't give some very basic level of support (Visa, Moving, Tax Returns, local "on hand" advisor etc).

If your employer doesn't give you home finding support then get a Realtor to help (they will help for free to get a house lease as they get commission, don't pay). Check the house renting websites like Trulia and Realtor which will give you local crime statistics (down to the individual actual offenses) and the school ratings. Check to see if the schools then have a facebook group or the HOA's that are in that district do and ask questions. Bare in mind that everyone slags off their home education system if that's their only reference (including people from the UK slagging off ours).

Make SURE you plan a visit to the area and to the schools. If the schools are not welcoming that's a big red flag. I see your daughter isn't school age but she will be K age soon so visit those. If you have holidays here its not a minor change to do a proper "sighting" visit and get facts on the ground. We did this and it made a massive difference to our confidence levels and we knew we were looking in the right places for a house, so much so that we settled on our third choice home to make sure the schools were right. (The kids come first!)

I'll be blunt avoid Apartments in places that are unfamiliar. The holiday ones are VERY different to living in an apartment community where there are estate based HOAs locally. If that's all you can afford and all you'll get from your employer then you are taking a big risk. You might get lucky, then again you might be at best next to a very noisy neighborhood or at worse a crack and hooker den.

Go straight for lease home. We did and we didn't regret it.

ZanM

I just moved to Fort Lauderdale and I'm liking it a lot here so far.

I didn't have a choice of location, didn't have an opportunity to visit beforehand (too poor), and didn't receive financial support from the work for the move either. We booked temporary accommodation for a couple of weeks when we arrived, had a potential apartment sorted out (which then fell through causing considerable worry all round), and then managed to find a really cool realtor who got us into my current apartment for the next year. So we kind of winged it using bits of advice from here and the University I work for, because we had no experience to give us many more options. Saying that, we don't have any kids or that and don't mind staying temporarily in crappy places (as long as they're safe!) so it worked out ok for us

It's been a month(ish) now since I arrived, and although there's definitely been a fair bit of stress getting everything sorted out logistically and getting used to the insanity that is driving in South Florida, so far it's pretty great The main draw for me wasn't Florida itself (it has NEVER been on my list of places to visit), but a really amazing job opportunity (2 year academic post) that I'm loving. Now that I'm here, I'm really glad I took the chance to do it - the wildlife and nature is great here (yes, it's built up, but there's way more than "just swamp") and there's a ton of stuff to do if you have a car to get there. I know it's going to get hot and humid pretty soon, but that just gives me an excuse to get in the sea more often when it comes, and for now I'm just taking advantage of a ready source of vitamin D and warmth to make up for all those Glasgow winters

Anyway, I know it's early days for me to be having much of an opinion on this, but so far I've not regretted the move at all.